logo
Defiant, argumentative and tearful: STEPHEN GIBBS details how Joel Cauchi's psychiatrist squirmed in the spotlight as she was finally grilled over his deadly rampage

Defiant, argumentative and tearful: STEPHEN GIBBS details how Joel Cauchi's psychiatrist squirmed in the spotlight as she was finally grilled over his deadly rampage

Daily Mail​14-05-2025

Joel Cauchi's psychiatrist went from argumentative to defiant before finally admitting she was wrong as her treatment of the Bondi Junction mass killer was again put under the spotlight on Wednesday.
Dr A - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - returned to the witness box in the State Coroners Court at Lidcombe where she repeatedly clashed with Sue Chrysanthou, SC, the barrister representing three of the families of Cauchi's victims.
It followed Dr A's statement on Tuesday where she said Cauchi's rampage stemmed from 'sexual frustration, pornography and hatred towards women' rather than his psychotic state.
Although Dr A withdrew her statement after conceding she had indulged in 'conjecture and speculation', she remained defiant on Wednesday.
At one point, Dr A told Chrysanthou, 'I don't think you have any degree in medicine', while being quizzed about Cauchi's mental health.
At another, Dr A objected to a question from Chrysanthou about Cauchi's schizophrenia by saying: 'That's not true, I have to educate you.'
Chyrsanthou: 'I don't want to be educated. I just want you to answer the question.'
By the time the psychiatrist was due to face re-examination by Peggy Dwyer, senior counsel assisting the coroner, Dr A, who took Cauchi off all anti-psychotic medications because he didn't like the side effects but remains adamant that she committed no errors in her treatment, was in tears and could not go on.
The lunch break was taken early so she could compose herself.
State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan is investigating the shopping centre massacre on April 13 last year when 40-year-old knifeman Cauchi killed five women and one man.
The carnage ended only when Inspector Amy Scott arrived on the scene and shot Cauchi dead.
Those killed by Cauchi were shoppers Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Ashlee Good, 38, Pakria Darchia, 55 and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30.
The inquiry has previously heard that Cauchi was 'floridly psychotic' but Dr A, who treated him for eight years until 2020, rejected that assessment on Tuesday and denied she had failed in his care.
Dwyer: 'What would you say to the suggestion that you refuse to accept that Joel was psychotic on the 13th of April because you don't want to accept yourself the failings in your care of Joel?'
Dr A: 'I did not fail in the care of Joel. I refuse - I have no error on my behalf.'
On Wednesday, Dr A continued to deny any failings, having helped wean Cauchi off his anti-psychotic medication by July 2019.
Dr A's first day giving evidence had featured heated testimony during which she became irritated with Dr Dwyer's line of questioning, telling her to 'move on'.
She began her second stint in the witness box by apologising for her behaviour the previous day, admitting she had been 'short at times' with Dwyer during her testimony.
'That's because I am suffering from acute pain and on medication,' she said
Cauchi, who grew up in Toowoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen and had been successfully treated for more than two decades.
Dr A gradually eased Cauchi off the two antipsychotic drugs he was taking - aripiprazole and clozapine.
After Cauchi ceased taking the drugs, his mother Michele contacted the psychiatrist's private clinic seven times raising concerns about possible signs of relapse.
Those signs included him leaving notes around their home about Satanic control, experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder and poor sleep.
Dr A previously told the court Cauchi had never been psychotic after he stopped taking aripiprazole and clozapine.
She believed he had first-episode schizophrenia, rather than chronic schizophrenia, because he had remained symptom-free while medicated.
In early 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cauchi moved to Brisbane when he was completely cut off from psychiatric care.
Having discharging Cauchi to his Toowoomba general practitioner after he relocated to Brisbane, Dr A said there was nothing she could do to follow up his care.
Dwyer suggested on Tuesday that Dr A could have made a phone call.
'You could have done that, you just couldn't charge for it,' she said.
Dr A accepted she could have done that.
On Tuesday, Dr A had also said Cauchi could not have organised the stabbing spree if he was experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia.
'It might have been to do with frustration, sexual frustration, pornography and hatred towards women,' she said.
'That is my opinion.'
At the start of the inquest, the office in charge of the police investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Marks, said Cauchi did not appear to have been targeting women.
Chrysanthou, who is looking after the interests of the Singleton, Young and Good families, told Dr A on Wednesday her claims about Cauchi's mental state at the time of the attack had shocked and distressed her clients and was 'contrary to all the expert evidence'.
Dr A withdrew her earlier statement.
'It was conjecture on my part and I should not have said what I said,' she added.
Dr A saw no link between discovering in November 2019 that Cauchi had become obsessed with sex and watching pornography five months after he had stopped taking medication.
'I didn't see any connection between the two, I thought it was a new phenomenon,' Dr A said.
Dr A had not believed Cauchi was paranoid when he expressed concern about having contracted HIV after what she called a 'dangerous sexual encounter' with a prostitute.
'It was a reality-based fear,' she said.
When Dr A queried the relevance of another of Chyrsanthou's questions the barrister responded: 'Don't worry about the relevance of my questions, just answer them.'
Dr A told the court Cauchi had never shown an interest in knives or given her reason to think he might be contemplating violent acts.
After Chrysanthou's cross-examination of Dr A it was the turn of Ragni Mathur, SC, the barrister representing a general practitioner who had treated Cauchi.
While working through the psychiatrist's contact with that physician, Mathur felt obliged to tell her, 'take a breath', 'pause, pause', and 'Doctor, take a breath'.
'I was satisfied that I did the right thing,' Dr A said at the end of Mathur's questions.
Dr A's own barrister, Mark Lynch, had his client explain to the court she was never in a position to make Cauchi take medication if he did not want it.
'It's almost the patient's choice,' she said.
'We can't force them.'
Dr A said during her eight years treating Cauchi he had never showed any symptoms of psychosis or signs of being a risk to himself or anyone else.
Between December 2015 and February 2020 she had 47 appointments with Cauchi, other psychiatrists had seen him six times, and psychiatric nurses saw him on 77 occasions.
Dr A told Lynch she had never been asked to give evidence in a court or tribunal until called to this inquest.
Asked if she was doing her utmost to the tell the truth, she said: 'In here, definitely, definitely.'
It was after Lynch had finished with his client that Dr A broke down in tears.
When she resumed giving evidence following lunch it was under Dwyer's re-examination.
After a more than a day and a half of giving evidence, Dr A was asked by Dwyer if she was now prepared to defer to the opinion of experts that Cauchi was psychotic when he killed seven strangers.
After a long pause, Dr A finally said 'yes'.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘The danger gap is so big': woman who witnessed Sydney light rail death calls for safety upgrades
‘The danger gap is so big': woman who witnessed Sydney light rail death calls for safety upgrades

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

‘The danger gap is so big': woman who witnessed Sydney light rail death calls for safety upgrades

A woman who says she witnessed a pedestrian fatally struck by a Sydney tram earlier this month is calling for safety upgrades to the city's light rail network. Annalise Gasparre, 27, said she was standing on the opposite platform at a light rail stop on Devonshire Street in Surry Hills to the man in the moments before he died on 5 June. Police said last week their initial inquiries, including reviewing CCTV footage, showed the man was attempting to cross the light rail track between two carriages when the tram began moving and trapped him. The man was the second pedestrian to die after being struck by a tram on Sydney's light rail in two years, after the 2023 death of a teenage girl who became trapped underneath a tram while attempting to cross a street in the CBD. The Sydney Light Rail network includes the L1 Dulwich Hill, L2 Randwick and L3 Kingsford lines, all of which run into the CBD. A new line opened in December, connecting Parramatta with Carlingford. The L2 and L3 routes use the Citadis X05 Light Rail Vehicles, built by the French manufacturer Alstom. While they are 33m in length, these trams are coupled together on the L2 and L3 routes to form a 66m-long vehicle. The fatal incident in Surry Hills prompted debate about whether it was safe to operate coupled trams. Gasparre, who said she saw the pedestrian die, suggested sensors or cameras be added to trams to alert drivers if a person was trapped underneath before they started moving away from a light rail stop. She also suggested that the yellow line at the edge of the platform at light rail stops should be moved further back. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email She said 'you could fit two people' in between the platform and the joinery between the trams. 'To be honest, I think the light rail design needs to be changed,' she said. 'The danger gap is so big.' Gasparre said she did not believe the man was trying to cross the tracks, and thinks instead that he had tripped forward and fallen off the platform. 'I hope something in terms of safety will come out of this,' she said. NSW police on Thursday said the man's death was now a matter for the coroner, who would be reviewing statements from all witnesses. Dr Liam Davies, a lecturer in sustainability and urban planning at RMIT University, said the two light rail deaths were 'terrible accidents' but the network was 'overwhelmingly' safe. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion However, he said additional safety measures could include installing something to block the gap between the tram carriages, or putting a barrier in the middle of a light rail stop to discourage people from trying to cross the road. 'It would have to be a lower cost, lower tech intervention, like fitting something to the existing trams,' he said. 'The other option is simply to not run them as coupled trams, but that would require a large amount of reorganisation to get more drivers and to redevelop all the timetables to be able to run more trams during peak hour.' Davies said Sydney's light rail network was much smaller and less complex than Melbourne's, where trams only run in a single fashion rather than being coupled together to form a longer vehicle. 'There's no right or wrong answer,' he said. 'It's got to be really context specific, and usually the context that these types of couple trams get run in are very busy corridors that have a lot of passengers.' Transport for NSW (TfNSW) said in a statement that the Surry Hills death was 'extremely distressing' 'This incident is now under investigation by NSW Police and Transport for NSW and the operator Transdev are giving their full support,' the statement said. 'The investigation will review what controls were in place, and we can not speculate further on any controls or conditions at this time. 'While the matter is investigated, we are unable to comment further.' Guardian Australia sought comment from the light rail's private operator, Transdev, on Thursday.

OneFour on prison, police and their long-awaited debut: ‘We wouldn't be who we are today if we didn't go through that'
OneFour on prison, police and their long-awaited debut: ‘We wouldn't be who we are today if we didn't go through that'

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

OneFour on prison, police and their long-awaited debut: ‘We wouldn't be who we are today if we didn't go through that'

As evidence of what's changed for the Australian hip-hop act OneFour, the group's Jerome 'J Emz' Misa points to the blue sky behind him. 'Right now I'm going for a midday walk – I never used to do this back in the days!' the rapper laughs, his Zoom screen shaky as he puffs through the streets of western Sydney. 'Physically and mentally, I feel like there's been a lot of positive changes.' For one, while OneFour made their name as the first in Australia to embrace drill, a Chicago-born genre that tells often-nihilistic tales of street violence, J Emz no longer identifies as a driller. 'I'm an artist and a musician – and [my music] comes from that perspective,' he says. The group, who grew up together in Mount Druitt, were teenagers when they first started making music in a local youth centre. They're now in their mid-to-late-20s and have had 'a lot of time to reflect' on where young adulthood in one of Sydney's most disadvantaged postcodes took them. 'If you're Polynesian, you grow up in church, and you have certain principles and morals that you live by, that you're taught by parents,' J Emz says. 'But what we all had to go through in the street went against those principles or morals.' What they went through has been well documented. In 2019, the same year the group enjoyed breakthrough success with their single The Message, OneFour hit two major setbacks. First, three of the group's members were jailed over a violent pub brawl. Second, their lyrics were taken by New South Wales police as evidence the group were engaged in gang warfare. Strike Force Raptor, a specialised police squad created to tackle outlaw motorcycle gangs, made it their mission to stop OneFour from ever performing in Sydney – and have, so far, more or less succeeded. Despite the group's repeated denials of involvement in gang violence, the police have cancelled their tours, barred them from entering the Aria awards on the night they were nominated, and arrived with metal detectors and undercover officers to the premiere of their 2023 Netflix documentary. What should have been the start of a brilliant career sputtered and stalled, and maintaining momentum has been an issue. But it hasn't stopped them becoming heroes. As local hip-hop manager and tastemaker Christopher Kevin Au puts it: 'With OneFour, people are buying into much more than the music – they're attached to the story. The trajectory of OneFour has seen them become the ultimate underdog tale.' Now, OneFour are chewing over their journey on their long delayed debut album, Look At Me Now. 'The album is based on a story of overcoming the obstacles that we've had to experience, growing from the people we were when we first started making music to the people we are today,' J Emz says. 'Look at us now – and look at where we are with our careers now.' Today, OneFour are arguably the biggest act in Australian hip-hop (bar their friend and collaborator the Kid Laroi), with several multi-platinum singles to their name. While they have always been proudly independent, the group recently struck a distribution deal with Sony Music subsidiary The Orchard, lending them more institutional backing than they've ever had. It's at Sony's Sydney office that I meet three of the band's four core members for an initial group interview: J Emz, Dahcell 'Celly' Ramos and Spencer 'Spenny' Magalog. There have been some lineup shifts in recent years. As of 2023, all members of the band are now out of prison, though Salec 'Lekks' Su'a, who was born in Samoa but holds New Zealand citizenship, was deported to New Zealand after finishing his sentence. Last year the group's longtime manager stepped down from his role, and original member Pio 'YP' Misa (younger brother of J Emz) left to join the priesthood, a decision he discussed in a tearful Nine News interview. A condition of this interview was that YP's departure not be discussed, and with some awkward topics to skirt around, there is sometimes a stiffness in our conversation. But one thing the group is happy to talk about is the album. Look At Me Now packs plenty that will feel familiar to OneFour fans – eshay slang, gunshot samples, quintessentially Australian references to Coles, Penrith Panthers and Honda Civics, and pithy lines like 'They put money on our heads / We call that shit an op shop' (a reference to a recent alleged murder plot). But there's also a new introspection to many of the tracks. 'We show a different side of ourselves – we get a bit vulnerable,' J Emz says. That includes Phone Call, the group's first love song, featuring the R&B singer Mabel. But other tracks tackle big topics like the environments that raise us, how easy it can be to get caught up in the system, and what it means to pull yourself out of one sort of life and into another. There are bars about the young kids let down by our schools and the friends who've been sucked in by drugs and landed in prison. On the album opener Change, J Emz implores young listeners to learn from his mistakes; elsewhere, Spenny raps about waking up in cold sweats from the memories of things he's done. J Emz says he doesn't want to be a role model for anyone ('I don't want that spotlight'), but he's aware there is a younger generation who look up to OneFour, not just as hitmakers but as representatives of Mount Druitt and Pasifika people on the world stage. When I talked to fellow Mount Druitt hip-hop act Kapulet in 2020, he described the group's influence on the young people of their neighbourhood: 'Before, everyone used to want to be footy players. Now everyone wants to be a musician.' 'We know our music goes a long way, and it reaches a lot of people,' says J Emz. 'So when it came to the album itself, I feel like it is the right thing to do … to be that positive role model.' OneFour say the album is 'for those who want more' from life, and hope it motivates their listeners. They're disappointed they won't get to share it live with fans in their home town; while the group is set to visit the rest of the country as part of their album tour, a Sydney show still isn't possible: 'We've tried,' J Emz says. Instead, the group staged a listening party at a secret location in western Sydney on Thursday, where the album was played over a soundsystem. To date, the only times they've been able to perform in their home city are in festivals or supporting act slots. In their war against OneFour, NSW police have often hit venues hosting the band with prohibitive user-pays police bills that effectively force the gig's cancellation. Guardian Australia understands that the group's Sydney show with the Kid Laroi in November only went ahead after the payment of a six-figure police bill, funding several riot squads, horseback patrols, plus police at the perimeter of the show and at Parramatta station. In fact, across a seven-year career, OneFour have only played about 20 shows – a number any other artist would do within six months of an album tour. The official police line is that they fear 'antisocial behaviour' should OneFour be allowed to perform, which is exasperating for the band. 'We haven't had any major incidents involved with our shows,' says J Emz. 'Everything's gone safely. It's tough when you've been doing it for years, and it's just a matter of them [the police] just letting go of whatever they got against us.' It doesn't feel coincidental that this extraordinary level of police intervention has been exercised against a group of Pasifika men; for their part, NSW police have described their own actions as 'lawfully harassing' the band. When I ask the usually chatty J Emz if it feels like discrimination, he has only one word in answer, which arrives to the awkward laughter of his bandmates: 'Yes.' But OneFour are surprisingly positive about what they have gone through and what's to come. 'We wouldn't be who we are today if we didn't go through that stuff, if it was just a walk in the park,' says J Emz. 'I feel like that's why people resonate with our music and find it so authentic.' OneFour are, J Emz feels, 'a living example of what's possible with music'. Spenny agrees: 'Without music I would have ended up on a different path, a whole different lifestyle … music for me, changed me – and basically saved my life.' Now, he just wants people – and the police – to understand what most other artists don't have to spell out: 'We're musicians. We love our craft, and we're just trying to get our story out to the world.' Look At Me Now is out 13 June (Sony Music). OneFour are touring Australia from 21 June.

'No one cares what happened to you - you are not Brittany Higgins': Political staffer with a disturbingly familiar story exposes $2.4m taxpayer funded compo double standard
'No one cares what happened to you - you are not Brittany Higgins': Political staffer with a disturbingly familiar story exposes $2.4m taxpayer funded compo double standard

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

'No one cares what happened to you - you are not Brittany Higgins': Political staffer with a disturbingly familiar story exposes $2.4m taxpayer funded compo double standard

A parliamentary researcher who allegedly suffered a similar rape and bullying ordeal to Brittany Higgins says the government treated her completely differently. Anna Hough, 46, alleges she was raped as a young woman in politics and then bullied and discriminated against by her bosses after she raised it with them. Ms Hough claims she was sexually abused and raped by a political staffer while volunteering for the Australian Democrats between 2000 and 2001. When Ms Higgins went public in 2021 to famously disclose her alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann, Ms Hough said it triggered her trauma from her own experience years earlier which led her to finally tell her bosses. But Ms Hough alleges that instead of being offered support by the Department of Parliamentary Services, she was sidelined and bullied by her managers. The mother-of-three from Canberra lodged a legal claim against the Federal Government in September 2023 covering both the alleged historic assaults and alleged bullying. But while Ms Higgins was given a $2.4million settlement after one day of mediation, Ms Hough claims she was instead treated like a 'second-class victim'. She told Daily Mail Australia she has been twice asked to sign non-disclosure agreements by the Labor Government and was given low-ball cash offers to settle. Now, after the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) found on Thursday there was 'no corruption issue' with Ms Higgins' huge settlement - which was signed after a day partly to avoid 'ongoing trauma' - Ms Hough has spoken out. 'I was a victim of alleged parliamentary workplace rape, sexual assault, bullying and discrimination but the Commonwealth has shown no concern about ongoing trauma to me,' Ms Hough told Daily Mail Australia. 'Instead, I have been offered a tiny fraction of the compensation, told repeatedly by lawyers and journalists that "no one cares what happened to you because you are not Brittany Higgins", and pressured to sign NDAs.' Ms Hough said some of the reasons she had been given by lawyers for the dramatic difference in settlement figures included that, 'you weren't a Liberal staffer', and 'that was a political decision'. '(But) we are supposed to have equality before the law in Australia,' she said. 'That should mean that if the Prime Minister, say, gets a speeding ticket he has to pay it the same way you or I do. 'And that if I am mistreated in the workplace, I get the same compensation as someone else who is similarly mistreated, whether they are the CEO or the cleaner.' Ms Hough stressed that her issue was with the government's handling of her own case, not how Ms Higgins' was treated. 'To be clear, I am not attacking Brittany Higgins, I am attacking the government and its inconsistency,' she said. The NACC said on Thursday that 'a critical consideration during the settlement process was avoiding ongoing trauma to Ms Higgins'. The former Liberal Party staffer's claim for alleged bullying and victimisation - not the rape itself - took about 11 months before it was resolved after a single day of mediation. 'But mine has now taken 20 months and counting,' Ms Hough said. 'The Commonwealth took four months just to respond to our first settlement offer. 'No one has shown any interest in avoiding ongoing trauma to me.' On Thursday morning, the NACC took the extraordinary step of revealing its preliminary findings into Ms Higgins' case to 'clear the air' around the 'scrutiny and speculation' surrounding the payout. It found that there was 'no corruption issue' involving any public officials. It also stated that the resolution of mediation after just a day was 'unexceptional' and revealed that Ms Higgins actually received less than the maximum amount recommended by external legal advice. Ms Higgins' former boss Senator Linda Reynolds, who lodged the original complaint, said she was 'bitterly disappointed' by the findings. 'My primary concern has always been how the Commonwealth could possibly settle unsubstantiated and statute barred claims made against me, alleging egregious conduct on my part without taking a single statement from me or speaking to me at all,' she said. Senator Reynolds has also launched legal action against the Commonwealth over the compensation payment, alleging that government lawyers were 'hopelessly conflicted'. The NACC said the question of whether Ms Higgins told mistruths during the pay-off talks was outside of their remit. 'Whether Ms Higgins made misrepresentations during the negotiations is not within the scope of the Commission's jurisdiction, as at the relevant time she was not a Commonwealth public official,' the NACC statement said. In his judgment in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case last year, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found that Ms Higgins made at least nine untrue representations when negotiating her settlement with the commission. Senator Reynolds noted that 'the NACC highlighted that whether or not a corruption issue exists is a different issue from whether there has been any breach of duty, misfeasance or negligence by the Commonwealth or its lawyers in relation to the settlement'. 'This distinction further reinforces the importance of my decision to pursue these issues in the Federal Court,' she added. Ms Reynolds is also awaiting the outcome of a blockbuster defamation claim she brought against Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over social media posts the pair made about her. A judgement is expected to be handed down in the Supreme Court of Western Australia later this month. Ms Hough first went public with her allegations in an interview with Sky News in April. Ms Hough said her motivation was the 'principle that all survivors deserve justice - regardless of their profile, role, or the media attention their case attracts'. 'I've been silenced for too long,' she added. 'Given the ALP's response to an alleged Parliament House rape cover up last election, the hypocrisy on display in their treatment of me, particularly in trying to silence me, is quite something.' Ms Hough has not had an affiliation with a political party since 2012 and has never been a member of the Liberal Party. She was a 21-year-old university student working as a volunteer for the Australian Democrats when she alleges she was raped and sexually assaulted by a political staffer between April 2000 and May 2001. 'The power imbalance, combined with a total lack of reporting mechanisms and a culture of silence, made it impossible for me to speak up,' she told Sky News. 'When I sought help outside the party after the first assault, I was made to feel that it was my fault. No one suggested I report the assault, seek counselling, or speak to the police.' It was later, during the MeToo era, when Ms. Higgins came forward with her own trauma, that Ms. Hough started suffering PTSD symptoms. At that stage, she had been working in the Department of Parliamentary Services since 2016. She disclosed her trauma to her bosses who allegedly failed to offer support. 'Instead of being supported, I was pressured to step down from a more senior acting role, denied a promotion, and treated as a burden,' she added. 'The bullying and discrimination I faced at DPS were re-traumatising.' She quit her role in April 2023 and filed her legal claim against the Commonwealth five months later. Ms Hough claims she was twice asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement during settlement negotiations. But a spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Department has previously denied that they would ask any victims to stay silent with the use of non-disclosure agreements. Daily Mail Australia approached the Attorney-General's department for further comment. During her time working in parliament, Ms Hough contributed to the Set the Standard report, which examined workplace behaviour and culture in the corridors of power. She has also continued to call for the establishment of a redress scheme for survivors of abuse in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store